Year of Change, Year of Choice: America and the United Nations

As I write on September 11, 2008, seven years after the World Trade Center disaster, I feel sorrow for all affected by the event. Over 3,000 people, including from 80 countries, lost their lives at the World Trade Center, and others on American Flight 93 and at the Pentagon. They deserve mourning and our respect. I regret that the United States squandered much of the good will the world poured out toward America just after that date.

The US and the UN have had a rocky relation since the advent of the US war on Iraq, undertaken without UN concurrence and based on erroneous information. This has colored US-UN relations in many other ways, although the US continues to support a significant piece of the UN budget and that of its agencies.

Many important treaties and conventions are awaiting US ratification or signature: Law of the Sea, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and others. Others have been abrogated by the current administration. Beyond this,the administration has vetoed Congressionally-mandated funding for the UN Population Fund. It has also overridden the Geneva Conventions on Treatment of Prisoners of War and has challenged the existence and authority of the International Criminal Court.

On November 4 we will elect our new president, congress, and one-third of the Senate. And on November 8, with those results in hand, the conference "Year of Change, Year of Choice: America and the UN" will take stock of the potential direction for US-UN relations for the upcoming years.

This First United Nations Association Mid-Atlantic Conference will be held at the UN on Saturday, November 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. YPIC and the Council of Organizations are co-sponsors with the UNA Southern NY State Division and the New Jersey Division.

Ramu Damodoram, Deputy Director of Outreach of the Department of Public Information, will give the welcoming address. Opening plenary invited speakers are New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. The Conference will focus on three topics: Human Rights, Peace and Security, and Climate Change. A Youth Speaker will be invited to participate in each panel.

Updates on the program and information on registration will be posted at www.unasouthernny.org